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Monday, 16 June 2014

Successful Music in the school project in Barneveld (NL)

BROKELAND BULLETS TEACHES BLUEGRASS MUSIC TO YOUNG STUDENTS

The Norwegian band Brokeland Bullets (brokelandbullets.com) took a group of young students under their wings to introduce them to the joy of playing bluegrass music. In a joint project between the Music School in Barneveld (The Netherlands) and the Stichting EWOB Voorthuizen (organizer of the EWOB Festival Voorthuizen, ewob.eu) Brokeland Bullets spent two hours of their time to teach bluegrass music at the local Music School, housed in the local theatre in Barneveld. This workshop was financially supported by the D'Addario Company from the U.S.A.

28 students, along with family and friends, came to the workshop that was held on the Wednesday evening before the EWOB Voorthuizen festival. After having played for half an hour, performing a number of bluegrass songs, the six band members spread out over the main foyer of the theatre and explained all about the instruments (violin, mandolin, bass, guitar, dobro and banjo) to the students.

After this presentation another hour was spent rehearsing the song "Man of Constant Sorrow". In the previous month the students had already rehearsed this song during their individual lessons. Now they were taught the finer details by the experts. Afterwards the band and all the students performed 'Man of Constant Sorrow' live on stage to show the audience what they had learned. It sounded great!

There were big smiles on everybody's faces as the children and their parents listened to the band playing more songs until the closing of the evening.

A lot of these children came to the EWOB Festival the next day, not only to see Brokeland Bullets again on stage, but also to see, hear and feel more of the bluegrass vibe.

The Stichting EWOB has already been asked to do this project again next year, on an even larger scale with students from Music Schools in the surrounding area. This request will of course be granted, so next year there will be another Bluegrass School Project.

The EWOB Festival & Trade Show 2015 will be held in Voorthuizen (The Netherlands) on Thursday 14th, Friday 15th and Saturday 16th of May 2015 - mark your calendar!